Review of Shattered Glass

A tension-filled drama with great performances from Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard.

Most everyone has told a lie at some point in his or her life. Parents tell their kids not to tell even a little lie because it will only get bigger. Former New Republic magazine journalist Stephen Glass apparently missed this childhood lesson. In the beginning, Glass would insert a bogus quote here or there; only about 20 percent of his early articles contained any fabrications at all. As time went along, the fiction grew until his stories no longer contained any reality at all: Pure fiction carefully disguised as fact. By the time he was exposed, Glass had fabricated, in part or in whole, 27 of the 41 pieces that he had written for The New Republic magazine. Fabrications were also found in many of the other pieces he had written for magazines such as George, Harper's and Rolling Stone. A former head of The New Republic's fact checking department, Glass was a master con man.

The movie version of these events, Shattered Glass, comes out this Friday. It's directed by screenwriter and first-time director Billy Ray and stars an excellent cast, including Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Chloe Sevigny, and Hayden Christensen as Stephen Glass.

We meet Glass in a (potentially imagined) classroom, talking to a room of journalism students in front of his former high school teacher. He's telling the story of becoming a successful journalist: what it takes to write the great piece. Glass is already a star writer at The New Republic, where the film picks up the story. He's getting calls from all the hot magazines wanting him to grace them with his presence on their pages. Around the office, Glass is a star as well. His colleagues love him. He's always first to remember birthdays, anniversaries and even one office worker's preference for Diet Coke. Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria) has served as Glass's mentor and couldn't be prouder. At pitch meetings, Glass always has the most popular tale, driving the focus of the room. At one point Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), who would ultimately replace Michael Kelly as the editor of the magazine, realizes he can't possibly follow the rousing performance put forth by Glass in his pitch meeting.

Shortly after Chuck Lane would take over as editor for New Republic, things would begin to unravel for Glass. An online publication called Forbes Digital Tool got a hold of a Glass piece entitled "Hack Heaven," about a hacker who hacked into a software giant's system. The company, Jukt Micronics, apparently gave the young hacker a huge sum of money to work for them. At a hackers conference, the boy would celebrate his success with his parents, agent and fellow hackers. As it turned out, there was no hacker and there was no conference. There wasn't even a Jukt Micronics.

As Chuck Lane ultimately begins to discover more and more of Glass's shocking and immense fabrications, the tension meter between Christensen and Sarsgaard thickens and never lets up. Director Billy Ray has a very steady-handed approach to the film: Tell it like it is. The story is fascinating as it really happened. There isn't need for a lot of fancy tricks or film fabrications. In fact, to take such historical license would have come across highly hypocritical when telling a story about someone's own personal manipulation of the truth.

The performances are excellent across the board, but the film's two standouts are Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard. Christensen took plenty of critical ribbings for his performance in the Attack on the Clones, but it seems likely that the problem there was the poor direction by Lucas as opposed to any problem with Christensen's acting ability. On the basis of this film alone, much less Life as a House, Christensen's chops as an actor need no longer be questioned. For 88 minutes on screen, he is Stephen Glass. By the end of the film, you truly want to smack him across the face and say, 'Why did you do this? How could you so betray and destroy the careers of the people who stood up for you?' I know I wanted to.

Hayden Christensen & Peter Sarsgaard in Shattered Glass

Peter Sarsgaard achieves a subtle, believable transformation in his performance as Chuck Lane. At the film's beginning, he is just another jealous journalist, unable to keep up with Glass's charisma. While he may hold some contempt for Glass's fame, he keeps it in check, perhaps even occasionally drawn in by Glass himself. As the story unfolds and Lane discovers what Glass has done, his contempt grows layer by layer. At first it's just a few possibly incorrect facts. Lane soon discovers that Glass duped everyone. His contempt reaches a breaking point as Glass continues to test Lane, inventing more and more lies as he goes. The tension grows and grows to a fantastic final standoff between Glass and Lane. This is the kind of role actors dream of. Again, we're all probably hoping for Lane to take a swing at Glass, but Sarsgaard's intensity in the role is enough.

Sometimes the best stories are taken out of real life. However, the story alone doesn't always make for a good movie. I'm sure we can all think of a few films off the top of our heads that had great ideas only to suffer from poor execution. Billy Ray has written a very tight script. It is straight and to the point. Most importantly, it does not attack Glass. It doesn't accuse or point fingers because there's just no need. The facts are all there. As a journalist, I find myself naturally intrigued by this type of story. In this field we've all known someone or heard the stories of another journalist "flavoring up" his pieces. In the business of entertainment journalism, both journalist and subjects are quoted out of context all the time. The movie asks the very important question: Who can you trust? When leading news sources like The New York Times and The New Republic can be duped, where does it stop?